The present invention relates to an improvement in access means for an assembly located on a room""s ceiling or other overhead location, by a human manipulating the assembly while standing on the room""s floor; seated in a wheelchair, or otherwise unable to reach the assembly unassisted. The primary purpose of the assembly is to suspend an article, such as a sign, or, pendently support a device, such as a smoke detector and alarm or other electrically actuated fixture, which, of necessity, is to be secured to the ceiling, and periodically removed for renewal, maintenance or inspection.
Magnetic holders such as are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,472,163 to Callas are used to display signs on upright metal supports. A permanent magnet is wedged between a pair of metal plates and enclosed within a shell shaped to provide horizontal stability and a strong holding force on the support. An upright cylindrical adaptor attached to the top of the shell is used to accommodate the shaft of the sign.
The problem to be solved herein is different from that addressed in the ""163 patent. This invention is directed to a problem that is encountered when dealing with an article suspended, or to be suspended from a ceiling, or other overhead location, in typical everyday situations. The problem: how does a person locate and manually secure an article on a high, out-of-reach ceiling or other overhead location without using something to stand on, for example, a step-ladder. Thereafter, how does the person remove the article when required to do so, again without resorting to climbing onto a surface higher than the floor, since the overhead location is well out of reach of the person""s upwardly outstretched hand, as the ceiling usually is? Such a ceiling, referred to herein as a xe2x80x9chighxe2x80x9d ceiling may be in the range from about 8 feet (2.44 meters) to about 30 feet (9.14 m) high.
The novel assembly disclosed herein comprises two separate parts, one of which, a first part, is secured to the ceiling, wall, or other overhead location, usually out of reach location; the other, second part, may be secured to the article, or, may be the article itself, adapted to be releasably coupled internally with the first part, that is, coupled with coupling means within the body of the first part. Components of the assembly are adapted to removably secure an article to the high location with a manually manipulated elongated tool or rod, referred to herein as a xe2x80x9crodxe2x80x9d for brevity, thus avoiding using a step-ladder, the effort of hauling the step-ladder underneath the assembly, and the risk of injury posed by having to deal with the assembly on the high location while standing on the step-ladder.
Merchandise such as toys, garments, groceries, hardware, lumber, and office supplies, is commonly advertised within a store by signs hanging from the store""s ceiling. Such signs may serve to direct a customer to a particular product, for example, bread in a grocery store; or the sign may serve to advertise a xe2x80x9cspecialxe2x80x9d on a particular item. Because the locations of goods in a store is frequently changed, as is the xe2x80x9cspecialxe2x80x9d offered from week to week, the location of the signs, as well as the signs themselves, must also be correspondingly changed. This is typically a time-consuming effort usually carried out after a store is closed for the day, and requires that an employee drag a step-ladder from one sign to the next one which is to be changed, or to use a motorized scissor-jack to travel from one to the other and change it. With the advent of stores which are open round the clock (the xe2x80x9c24 hr. storexe2x80x9d) signs must be changed during a time when there are the fewest customers on the premises, if only to avoid risk of injury to them.
In numerous celebratory situations, congratulatory signs, streamers and balloons are hung from the ceiling, usually tied to a pendent fixture such as a hanging light or ceiling fan. Restaurants and hotels have xe2x80x9cparty roomsxe2x80x9d dedicated to celebrations, and such a room""s ceiling is sometimes provided with hooks, the same color as the ceiling, which are unobtrusively screwed into the ceiling. The hooks are used to suspend balloons and streamers, which are required to be changed for each occasion, entailing a substantial amount of time-consuming labor. The simple task of inserting a hook into the eye of an eye-bolt on the ceiling, or snagging a hook on the ceiling with another hook from which a bunch of balloons is hung, while standing on a step-ladder is a trying and time-consuming task. It would be far less expensive and more efficient to be able to change the pendent decorations without having to mount a stepladder for each decoration to be changed.
Another article suspended from a ceiling, which is required to be reached relatively frequently, is a battery-operated smoke detector and alarm (xe2x80x9csmoke alarmxe2x80x9d), the battery for which must be changed when its charge is depleted. As anyone who has replaced batteries in a smoke alarm secured to the ceiling is well aware, enthusiasm for changing the battery, immediately upon noting that it must be changed, is inhibited, and the task is complicated, by having to climb onto a step-ladder while removing and replacing the battery with outstretched arms. Typically, the battery is to be inserted in a tightly-fitting harness in the body of the smoke alarm. To ease the task, and allow a person to change the battery with less stress on his arms, U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,696 to Kramer discloses a steel base plate which is fastened to the ceiling; a magnet is held in a receiver secured to the smoke alarm, so that when the magnet is placed on the steel base plate, the smoke alarm is held on the ceiling. When the battery is to be changed, the magnetic coupling allows one to remove the smoke alarm from the base plate, but one has to stand on a stepladder to do so. The difficulty of registering a steel plate to a magnet secured to the ceiling is minimal so long as the task is addressed by a person on a stepladder and the magnet is conveniently within the person""s arm""s reach. The difficulty of the simple task is greatly exaggerated if the steel plate is to be registered to the magnet on a ceiling which cannot be reached with a conveniently available stepladder, the higher the ceiling, the more daunting the task, and certainly impossible if the person is in a wheelchair. It is only retrospectively self-evident that it is far more convenient and much safer, to remove the smoke alarm without having to use the stepladder, if only the solution to the problem was readily at hand.
More specifically the two parts of the novel assembly may comprise subassemblies only one of which is removable from the ceiling by being manually couplable and decouplable while standing on the floor of the room, using a broom stick or other elongated rod, easily manipulated with purposeful accuracy and little force, by that person.
An assembly adapted to be secured to a ceiling or other overhead location comprises a pair of first and second subassemblies couplable and decouplable by a person standing on the floor, without manually directly contacting either, but using a rod or other elongated member. The first subassembly is preferably fixedly secured to the ceiling or other overhead location, hence referred to as the secured subassembly, or xe2x80x9cbase memberxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cbasexe2x80x9d for brevity; the second subassembly, which provides a surface to which an article is secured, for example a hook or an electrical fixture, is removably coupled to the base; because the second subassembly is used to mount the article which is to be suspended, or, is itself provided by the base of the article to be suspended, the second assembly is referred to as the suspended subassembly, or xe2x80x9cmounting memberxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cmountxe2x80x9d for brevity. The two subassemblies, namely, the base and mount, are coupled to one another with remotely uncouplable coupling means, for example, magnetically, or, with mating hooks and eyelets such as are provided with Velcro(copyright) fasteners adhesively secured within the base and mount respectively, or, by a detent means integrally formed with the base and mount, such as a peripheral detent, or, a latching means, or, an interference fit. A rod-acceptance means, such as a socket, or finger-like protrusion, or through-passage in the mount, also functions as a detachment means, depending upon whether the mount is to be positioned on the base, or removed from it; when the rod-acceptance means is a rod-attachment means, it is secured to the mount, preferably integrally formed therewith, and is adapted to be interfitted to one end of a rod so as to be securely supported by it. When a force is exerted on the rod by a person manipulating it from the floor of the room, the mount is easily engaged with, or disengaged from the base, the mechanical advantage arising from the use of a long rod as a lever. Preferably, the dimensions of the mount are so chosen that it be mated to the base with effortless accuracy; a decoupling force adequate to disengage the mount from the base is exerted on the end of the rod to remove the mount after it is mated. The decoupling force required to decouple the subassemblies depends upon the coupling force exerted by the coupling means, and the decoupling force exerted is increased by the length of the rod which provides the leverage.
In a first specific embodiment, the base and mount are magnetically couplable, then decoupled when required, by a person on the floor of a room.
In a second specific embodiment, the base and mount are couplable with mating hooks and eyelets such as are provided with Velcro(copyright) fasteners.
In a third specific embodiment, the base and mount are couplable with interfitting detent means.
In a fourth specific embodiment, the base and mount are couplable with a latching means.
In a fifth specific embodiment, an assembly secured in position as exemplified in one of the foregoing four specific embodiments is provided with at least two electrical contacts in electrical connection with wires in the ceiling; an electrical fixture secured to the mount is electrically connected to the wires in the ceiling when the subassemblies are coupled; and when they are decoupled, the electrical connection is broken.
In a sixth embodiment, the component-mounting floor of a smoke detector and alarm assembly, or light fixture, by itself, is coupled with magnetic coupling means, directly to a base member secured to the ceiling; electrical components which actuate the detector and alarm, or light fixture, and a replaceable battery are mounted on the component-mounting floor of the detector and alarm which is covered with a removable cover; rod-attachment means are provided integrally with the cover.